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A review by lisa_mc
Archangel by Marguerite Reed
3.0
A ruined Earth; a new hope for a home on another planet. That’s not a new idea for science fiction, but it has nearly endless possibilities, of which the story of “Archangel” is one.
The story, set a few hundred years in the future, is told from the viewpoint of Vashti Loren, a colonist and xenobiologist on Ubastis, an edenic planet that appears to be a possible new home for displaced Earthlings. But because her advance research team needs supplies and funding, Vashti also leads “safaris” for off-worlders to hunt alien fauna. The conflict between her search for knowledge of the new world’s creatures and her enabling of violence against them doesn’t help Vashti’s psyche; neither does the fact that she witnessed the murder of her scientist husband and was left to raise their young daughter alone.
The plan behind the potential colonization was for a century of research to determine whether the planet’s ecosystem could support a new species -- humans. But a century is a long time, and powerful interests are working to speed up the process. Add to the mix a rogue “Beast” -- a bio-enhanced soldier, one of which killed Vashti’s husband -- on Ubastis, and there’s no lack of action.
Reed does a fine job of world-building in “Archangel,” not dumping too much information at once, but giving readers a clear big-picture sense of what’s going on while slipping in smaller details. Her lively writing gets a little over-the-top at times, but the book’s pacing is fast, the plot raises thought-provoking questions about ecology and humanity, and Vashti is a complex, interesting character -- who will be back in two more books.
The story, set a few hundred years in the future, is told from the viewpoint of Vashti Loren, a colonist and xenobiologist on Ubastis, an edenic planet that appears to be a possible new home for displaced Earthlings. But because her advance research team needs supplies and funding, Vashti also leads “safaris” for off-worlders to hunt alien fauna. The conflict between her search for knowledge of the new world’s creatures and her enabling of violence against them doesn’t help Vashti’s psyche; neither does the fact that she witnessed the murder of her scientist husband and was left to raise their young daughter alone.
The plan behind the potential colonization was for a century of research to determine whether the planet’s ecosystem could support a new species -- humans. But a century is a long time, and powerful interests are working to speed up the process. Add to the mix a rogue “Beast” -- a bio-enhanced soldier, one of which killed Vashti’s husband -- on Ubastis, and there’s no lack of action.
Reed does a fine job of world-building in “Archangel,” not dumping too much information at once, but giving readers a clear big-picture sense of what’s going on while slipping in smaller details. Her lively writing gets a little over-the-top at times, but the book’s pacing is fast, the plot raises thought-provoking questions about ecology and humanity, and Vashti is a complex, interesting character -- who will be back in two more books.